The remains of the second U.S. Army soldier who went missing during military exercises in Morocco were recovered, the Army said Wednesday, ending a multinational search effort that deployed air, naval and artificial intelligence assets.
The Army identified the soldier as Spc. Mariyah Symone Collington, 19, of Florida, and said the circumstances surrounding the incident remain under investigation. The announcement came days after the military said the remains of another U.S. service member, 1st Lt. Kendrick Lamont Key Jr., had been recovered.
In its statement, the U.S. military said Royal Moroccan Armed Forces transported Collington’s remains by Moroccan helicopter to the morgue of Moulay El Hassan Military Hospital in Guelmim, Morocco. The U.S. military said Collington served as an air and missile defense crewmember.
Collington was assigned to Charlie Battery, 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, U.S. Army Europe and Africa, according to the Army. The Army said Collington entered the Regular Army’s Delayed Entry Program in 2023, began active-duty service in 2024, and completed basic combat training and advanced individual training at Fort Sill in Oklahoma as a 14P air and missile defense crewmember.
The Army said Collington reported to Charlie Battery in Ansbach, Germany, in February 2025 and was promoted to specialist on May 1, 2026. The Army also said her awards and decorations include the Army Service Ribbon.
The incident began when the two soldiers were reported missing May 2 after participating in African Lion, an annual multinational military exercise held in Morocco. Their disappearance triggered a search operation involving more than 1,000 U.S. and Moroccan military and civilian personnel, a U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa spokesperson told The Associated Press.
The search assets described by U.S. officials included a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, unmanned aerial systems, thermal and ISR sensors, and an unmanned underwater vehicle. U.S. and Moroccan teams also used side-scan sonar, a Moroccan multibeam echosounder and U.S. Coast Guard drift modeling capabilities, according to the spokesperson.
African Lion 26, which the exercise is called, is U.S.-led and launched in April across four countries — Morocco, Tunisia, Ghana and Senegal — with more than 7,000 personnel from more than 30 nations. The Associated Press also noted that in 2012, two U.S. Marines were killed and two others injured during a helicopter crash in Morocco’s southern city of Agadir while participating in the exercises.
U.S. officials said the two soldiers’ remains are en route to the United States.